Instructing Children in the Martial Arts – Part IX

Many years ago, I had just gotten home after teaching one night at the dojo. I clicked on the TV but wasn’t paying much attention to it. The late news came on and I caught a glimpse of someone I thought I knew, being led into court in an orange jail jumpsuit.

It was the breaking story and turned out to be who I was afraid it was, a martial arts instructor who everyone had known for years and liked. He had been charged with molesting one of his teenage students. And they were expecting to possibly find more victims. (The details are a bit hazy after all these years so I’m hopefully remembering things correctly.)

According to the news, he had held regular sleepovers for his students at his house. He would apparently serve alcohol to underage people at these events. While the teenager who reported him was drunk and asleep, the instructor fondled him. Turned out, however, the teenager wasn’t as drunk as the instructor thought. He woke up to find himself being molested.

The Boy Scouts of America has a “No One-On-One” policy. No adult associated with scouting is allowed to meet one-on-one with any scout at any time, for any reason. Unless they are the scout’s parent, they are never allowed to sleep alone in a tent with a scout. They are not allowed to pick up and drop off individual scouts in their cars. Another adult has to always be with them when they did any of these. Obviously, they would not be allowed to have individual scouts for sleepovers, or if it’s a group function, never be alone with any scouts during a sleepover.

The same should apply to us as martial arts instructors and anyone who works for us or teaches at our schools. Always teach in public or in a place that is visible to the public. Leave doors open to public view if you’re meeting with a student or teaching a private lesson or have someone with you. Don’t room with individual students while at tournaments, etc. All of this is, of course, just common sense. But as I mentioned before, commonsense isn’t always so common. Be careful.

Thanks for putting up with my humble ramblings.